Mercer Wrestling Finishes 2nd in Bear Invitational

11/03/2009 -

November 1, 2009

Kicking off the collegiate wrestling season at home, Mercer’s grapplers wrestled their way to a second place finish in a talented field that included South Carolina, Georgia Tech, Georgia, Emory, Georgia Southern, Kennesaw State, and the winner Middle Tennessee State. Finishing second in the team standings by only a six point margin, the Bears saw freshman Mike Green win the 141 lbs weight class in his first college wrestling tournament. Green would be the only individual weight class champion for Mercer, but Austin Griffin (133 lb.), Parker Owen (174 lbs.), Jerod Northcott (184 lbs.) and Ross Babbitt (285 lbs.) would take the second spots in their respective weight categories. Also placing for Mercer in the top three of their weight classes were Shaun Walker (157 lbs.) and Ben Mercier (197 lbs.). “I was very proud of how they competed for their first competition of the season,” said head wrestling coach Kevin Andres after the tournament. “MTSU brought the most guys to the tournament and that helped them win the team title, but we finished a close second and I’m proud of that,” he added. “It was great getting out on the mat and competing,” added All-American Jerod Northcott. He later added, “We had a great turnout in fans and supporters coming out to watch us and we’ve got a great future ahead of us. There’s a lot of young talent on this team and we’re a little inexperienced on the mat but with a little work we’ll be strong in the coming months.” Conditioning seemed to play a part in the Bears success on Saturday as Northcott added, “We’re one of the better conditioned teams here and that gave us an advantage.” With the wrestling season just starting, the Bears will be on the road for the next few weeks as they travel to Orlando this weekend (UCF Open). For their complete 2009-10 schedule as well as news and notes about Mercer’s largest and most competitive club sport, visit www.ncwa.net